Parliamentary Standards Bill

My Lords, if the Leader of the House wishes to give an indication of what she is intending to do with the Committee stage of this Bill, it would indeed be very helpful—not just to myself, but to all Members of your Lordships’ House. Perhaps I might now consider some of the issues that have been addressed during the debate, because it is my duty to try and respond to some of those issues. The Leader of the House, in her response, may be able to make it clear how she intends to square the circle between the sovereignty of Parliament and our mutual desire—I hope it is a mutual desire, on all sides of your Lordships’ House—that there be an independent initiative in the setting and enforcing of MPs’ pay and allowances. For example, will the adopted route be that the IPSA will put an entire scheme before Parliament to accept or reject, rather than have the present situation, from which I have suffered on a number of occasions, where the House has a mush of motions from which MPs can cherry pick carrots and then discard the sticks? Clause 4 provides for the IPSA—